Labour seeks identity in leftist icons

What do Franklin Roosevelt, Francois Mitterrand, Willy Brandt and Nilde Iotti have in common? Apart from being political icons in America and Europe, all four politicians of yesteryear will be lending their names to four halls at the Labour Party's congress to be held in Ta Qali in the coming days.

By associating the party to the political giants, all coming from the progressive left movements of Europe, Labour leader Joseph Muscat is trying to portray himself as the self-styled leader of 'a movement of progressives and moderates' he claims to be, aligning his party to the left of centre while at the same time appealing to disillusioned Nationalist voters.

While Roosevelt, Mitterrand, Brandt and Iotti come from leftist parties (Iotti was actually an Italian communist), they also represent a wide range of political creeds: from Roosevelt's brand of moderate and liberal politics which reached its height with the New Deal that dragged America out of the Great Depression; to Iotti's militancy in the anti-fascist resistance movement and the Italian Communist Party to her ascendency as Italy's first female Speaker.

With Labour's attempts to create its movement of progressives and moderates, the party has still come in for some criticism for trying to be everything for everyone, and promising conflicting things to diametrically-opposed lobbies and interest groups.

Roosevelt, Mitterrand, Brandt and Iotti will sound exotic to a section of the Labour Party supporters attending the congress, but the association is a clear attempt at forging some form of clear identity.

In the first ever initiative of its kind in Malta, Labour's week-long national congress will forge a 'roadmap' for its upcoming electoral manifesto. This openness is being projected as the ultimate demonstration of bottom-up direct democracy.

However it is hard to fathom how the thoughts and ideas of the party's 35,000 members, or at least of those who will attend the Ta' Qali congress, will be discussed and evaluated. A number of issues ranging from education to civil rights and from energy and the environment to the economy will be discussed in 45-minute sessions at the National Park.

Most likely the meetings will be channelled in a direction already set by those already working on the party's programme, which already carry the stamp of Muscat's great influence on party policy. Labour is not in the mood for divergent ideological currents: after 25 years in Opposition, it's direction is one of strategy.

Most certainly the congress should provide a platform for members who don't participate in the archaic party structures, and perhaps also showcase any existing divisions especially on controversial issues such as gay rights, immigration and IVF.

There are no possible divisive votes to be taken, and only passionate debate will determine whether Labour's congress is simply a rubber-stamping exercise al fresco.

Beyond the nature of the debates to be held in the coming week, Labour is trying to create an identity that is as attractive to its natural voter base as much as it could be to disgruntled Nationalists and the middle class.

Willy Brandt was the leader of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1964 to 1987, and chancellor of Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1971 for his efforts to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of the Soviet bloc. Brandt will be best remembered for his controversial Ostpolitik, a policy aimed at improving relations with East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union, while expending the welfare state on a national level.

Nilde Iotti was active in the Italian partisan resistance movement against the Nazis during World War II. She later became a Communist Party member becoming the first woman to become Speaker of the Italian lower House for three consecutive legislatures from 1979 to 1992. She was also involved in the writing of the Italian Constitution in the immediate post-war period. She famously had an affair with Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti.

Francois Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic from 1981 until 1995. He remains the longest-serving President of France the first post-war figure from the left elected as President and the last before this year's election of Socialist Francois Hollande. Following his victory in 1981, Mitterrand embarked on a programme of nationalization and job creation in an attempt to combat economic stagnation and unemployment. He was the main promoter of the Treaty of Maastricht on European Union in 1991. His career was tarnished with friendship with wartime Vichy collaborators, political corruption and extra-marital affairs.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States and led the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and war. In 1933, Roosevelt spearheaded the New Deal designed to reduce unemployment, encourage, economic growth and regulate Wall Street and American capitalism. His 12 years in the White House set a precedent for the expansion of presidential power and redefined American liberalism.